Here’s the thing. In the original Marvel comics, Madame Web is also named Cassandra Webb, but to put it politely, she’s not quite as young or as spry as Dakota Johnson. The original character is an elderly blind woman — and because she suffers from a long-term neuromuscular disease known as myasthenia gravis, she’s on a life support machine. That machine? It happens to look a lot like a spider web.
Madame Web, unlike the stars of previous Sony movies, like Morbius and Venom, isn’t an antagonist where Spider-Man is concerned. Rather, her first collaboration with the plucky teenage hero in the comics is when she uses her clairvoyance and mental powers to track down a kidnapping victim. Still, she knows that Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker, so armed with this information, she cements herself as one of his allies.
They end up helping each other during her run in the comics, although eventually, Madame Web is written out when her character is killed by Sasha Kravinoff, daughter of Kraven the Hunter. Before dying, she passes her powers to Julia Carpenter, the vitally important Marvel character played by Sydney Sweeney in the 2024 film, who, in the comics, also bears the mantle of Spider-Woman.
